Web, Social Use Spikes Following Court Decision, Incorrect Reports

Twitter activity around today's Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act peaked at more than 13,000 tweets per minute at 10:17 a.m., significantly more than the 900 TPM that was tracked during the oral arguments in March, reports Rachael Horwitz, a representative from Twitter.com.

For CNN and Fox News, among other news organizations, the twitter frenzy proved to be a source of embarrassment. Both news organizations falsely reported that the bill had been struck down, as did those who repeated the error.

CNN originally tweeted that the Supreme Court struck down the individual mandate for health care and displayed the information prominently on their website. Their blunder also unfolded on television, where Wolf Blitzer said the network had received conflicting reports. The network was forced to publicly issue a retraction.

Many reporters whose organizations had the correct information took to Twitter to taunt those who made mistakes.

Associated Press Central U.S. Region Editor David Scott asked his staff to stop taunting CNN and other’s court ruling mistake in a memo to his staff. According to a memo obtained by media blogger Jim Romenesko, Scott wrote: “That’s not the impression we want to reflect as an organization. Let our reporting take the lead.”

The U.S. Supreme Court declared the health reform act constitutional this morning. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires non-exempted individuals to participate in a health insurance plan of some kind, starting in 2014.

Trending Twitter topics in the New Haven area included #Obamacare, Roberts, Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Constitutional, according to Twitter.

Among the reactions to the Supreme Court decision and the erroneous television reports were taunts from other journalists.

Politicians against the individual mandate celebrated prematurely on Twitter, and deleted their tweets after learning the healthcare act was upheld. Their deleted tweets can be seen on the web site Politwoops.